Elizabeth Saunders’ mother struggled with memory loss as Elizabeth cared for her.

"She couldn’t quite believe I was really her daughter," the younger woman recalls. "It didn’t make sense to her because she knew I had a life somewhere else. She would say to me, ‘I hope someday you have a chance to meet my youngest daughter, Elizabeth, because you two have so much in common. I think you’d get along great.’"

The Southern Caregiver Resource Center provided emotional and educational support as well as much-needed breaks through respite caregivers. That made all the difference before her mother died, Elizabeth says.

"I was holding her, we were spooning, and I wanted her to know that I was there with her to the end," Elizabeth says in a moving video. "That couldn’t have happened if I didn’t get the support that I got from the stress-reduction classes to the counseling sessions to knowing (I could) get overnight (help) or half a day so I can refresh and come back to be really there for Mom. That I could be fresh and she could get the best parts of me was really huge. Caregivers need respite."

Caregiver Resource Centers are part of a network of aging services enhancing lives for 50 years in California.